Installing RPM s

[James Wilkinson]

Cameron Simpson recommended:
> Pop up a terminal, su to root and then cd to the directory with the rpm
> in it. Then:
> 
> rpm -ivh foo.rpm

Kenneth Porter objected:
> No!!!!
> 
> The -i (install) switch is only appropriate for kernels. For all other 
> packages, use -U (update). It will also install if the package isn't 
> present, but it will remove any old versions if they are.

I don't think it's as black-and-white as Kenneth makes out.

-U is basically a "make it work" option. -i and -F are "I know what I'm
doing" options that are more likely to come up with errors if the state
of your system isn't exactly what you expect. In certain circumstances,
this is a good thing.

For example, if you're trying to work out why a shell script isn't
working, and you find that it can't call a program, so you rpm -i the
RPM needed and it brings up an error, this should prompt you to stop
looking at packages and start looking at default paths.

Or supposing you rpm -i an experimental rpm, and it fails. You might
find that this is because part of GNOME relies on libraries that the
package provides (which is why you had it installed in the first place:
do *you* know all the packages that GNOME uses?)

You might then conclude that an experimental package that affects large
parts of GNOME could be more pain than you're prepared to accept.

As Kenneth said, though, kernels are different.

James.

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